ra herself. He listened and he was sure. Beyond a doubt it was a
note of warning.

Robert opened his eyes and everything went away. There was the pleasant,
green island, and there was the deep blue sea all about it. He laughed
to himself. He was letting imagination go too far. One could make
believe too much. He sat idly a few minutes and then, putting the
glasses to his eyes, took another survey of the far horizon where blue
sky and blue water met. He moved the focus slowly around the circle, and
when he came to a point in the east he started violently, then sprang to
his feet, every pulse leaping.

He had seen a tiny black dot upon the water, one that broke the
continuity of the horizon line, and, for a little while, he was too
excited to look again. He stood, the glasses in his trembling fingers
and stared with naked eyes that he knew could not see. After a while he
put the glasses back and then followed the horizon. He was afraid that
it was an illusion, that his imagination had become too vivid, creating
for him the thing that was not, and now that he was a little calmer he
meant to put it to the proof.

He moved the glasses slowly from north to east, following the line where
sky and water met, and then the hands that held them trembled again.
There was the black spot, a trifle larger now, and, forcing his nerves
to be calm, he stared at it a long time, how long he never knew, but
long enough for him to see it grow and take form and shape, for the
infinitesimal but definite outline of mast, sails and hull to emerge,
and then for a complete ship to be disclosed.

The ship was coming toward the island. The increase in size told him
that. It was no will-o'-the-wisp on the water, appearing a moment, then
gone, foully cheating his hopes. If she kept her course, and there was
no reason why she should not, she would make the island. He had no doubt
from the first that a landing there was its definite purpose, most
likely for water.

When he took the glasses from his eyes the second time he gave way to
joy. Rescue was at hand. The ship, wherever she went, would take him to
some place where human beings lived, and he could go thence to his own
country. He would yet be in time to take part in the great campaign
against Quebec, sharing the dangers and glory with Willet, Tayoga,
Grosvenor and the others. The spirits in the air had sung to him a true
song, when his eyes were shut, and, in his leaping exultation, he forgot